Of Time Lords and Champions: Adopted
by Era Dubois
Summary: This is the continuation of Rose and the Doctor's adventure in the Labyrinth as created by MyraValhalla. The story is under this name minus the subtitle on her profile. Time to answer the question of those six hearts.
1. Disclaimer

Hello to any who have read and followed the original author of this story. My name is Era. I have adopted this from MyraValhalla. I strongly urge you to read the prologue and first seven chapters of this on her profile. The story is under the same name.

I truly hope you will all enjoy this. I know I will.


	2. Changes

**A/N I own nothing from the source material, songs, or oc's from MyraValhallah's story**. **Just doing this for fun.**

Chapter 8

"Sons and daughters?" Rose looked at the TARDIS. Which, by the way, was kind of screwy for even her well time and space traveled mind. The TARDIS could run simulations and put out warnings by taking the form of a past visitor but Rose had never really spoken with her. She guessed that she wasn't seeing the real form either considering this projection looked exactly like Rose herself.

"You are nervous...and confused? Yes, confused. But how can you be confused so thoroughly?" The TARDIS walked in a slow circle about the little human from her level 5 planet who had seen so many things and been so many places and still could have trouble in wrapping her mind around something. The TARDIS smiled, "He still gets confused as well. You know...I met him when he was already very old. He is my old man and I am his blue box, however, I fear he has been around humans for a bit too long. He used to travel with his granddaughter and then with so many others. Barring that one snog in San Fransisco he had been pretty much chaste for five hundred years. Then you come along and make him think he's human. I wasn't enough for him anymore. True, he still loves our adventures but I am with him all of the time. I see how lonely he gets, even when he is with me, I've been with him through every tragedy. He knows that I don't want him to make a choice he'll regret. I am afraid that is why he left you behind. Silly nit didn't realize that would make him even more miserable. So yes, Sons and Daughters of Gallifrey."

"I'm sorry," Rose stared at her interlocutor then placed a hand to her pounding headache, "was that supposed to help me understand?"

"Well yes, I am changing you silly, that's why you're in pain. It won't last long though. A moment of pain for lifetimes of happiness."

Rose woke with a start and felt strange. It was as though she could taste light and smell purple. Her fingers didn't look right. She didn't feel right, and yet, she felt perfect. Perfectly fine. Perfectly Rose. There was a horrible wrenching feeling in her right side and she pressed her hand against it and then jumped. She felt a heart beat. She placed her hand over the left side of her chest...B-bump...then the other over the right...B-bump. She had two hearts. She looked at her self in the mirror and thought for a moment she was looking at the TARDIS. "No." The word came out with a wisp of regeneration energy thus proving her right. Rose Tyler was now genetically Gallifreyan.

* * *

Sarah had her hands pinned between herself and Jareth's chest as he kissed her in a very possessive way. _This wasn't right._ _This wasn't how it was supposed to happen._ She felt his tongue test the hard line of her lips. Well that's the last straw. She pushed against him and stood staring down at the Goblin King.

"What were you thinking?! Are you insane. I just got a crash course in your family history, catch you up on my life without you, and you think that is an open invitation to attach yourself like a barnacle to my mouth. Let me tell you something Goblin King. I am _not_ easy, I am _not_ that fifteen year old girl confused over subtext, and I am pretty sure that if you had tried that with anyone else it might have gone over no problem but here's the thing. I am Sarah Williams, I have seen things in the last three days, you think reordering time will win you something from me? Well you have another think coming you poofy shirted, entitled...JERK!" She stormed out and pushed past Christine and Ayesha, who had been waiting at the door, and walked to a room where she could find some quiet.

Jareth stared at the space once occupied by the Labyrinth's champion dumbly. His sister and mother had burst into hysterics. Jareth stomped over and glitter poofed as close to them as possible. Neither knew where he might have gone but looked at each other soberly, doused in sparkles, and started giggling again.


	3. A Bit of Music

**A/N I own nothing from the source material, songs, or oc's from MyraValhallah's story**. **Just doing this for fun.**

Chapter 9

The hall stretched on and on. Stones placed in less than neat rows and columns building up until they summed out to be unrealistically comfortable. Castles were supposed to have small halls that were narrow and short and disappointing once you actually walked through them after spending years worth of dreams, which skulked into your mind, and told you that you wanted to...walk through a castle. That's what it was. Disappointment in the architecture. Sarah took a breath. She slowed her pace. She felt like an idiot. He was a king. He had power. Power enough to give her certain powers. Then again, he is just a man, or a male of his species at least. They had been talking and he had shown sympathy, but, he pushed too far. She was right in being miffed wasn't she? Sarah turned toward a wall and saw the eyes in a painting move. "What?"

She walked up to it and peered at the eyes. It was a trick painting, like the ones in Scooby Doo, and she could hear voices on the other side. They were muffled and distorted as though they were already far off down some passage. The stones started to feel harder underneath her shoes and she realized that she had been running and talking and pretty much not sleeping for three days. She was exhausted. The Doctor expected far too much from himself and his companions. Sarah sighed. She was bushed and now she was starting to think that the kiss wasn't all his fault and that she overreacted and that the only person who could deal with trick paintings right now would be the Doctor. An elderly goblin toddled past her on its' way to who knows where with a pile of rotting lettuce and two stuffed toy bunnies. "Excuse me."

The goblin paused and looked up at her the skin around its lipless mouth stretching away to form a botched attempt at a smile. "Yes?"

Sarah smiled back. "Do you know where the man I came here with went?"

The goblin furrowed its' brow and placed its' load on the floor. "You mean 'smajessy?"

Sarah exhaled sharply through her nose. It was not the goblins fault that she was impatient to find the Doctor. "No, the tall man with brown hair wearing a tie." She mimed straightening a Windsor knot and she could see the light bulb go off in the goblins head.

"Oh, Gorb knows where Dr. man is. He was in his rooms."

She shook her head gently, "And where would those be?"

"Oh one lefts then two rights then just in front." Gorb bent down and picked up his load.

"Thank you Gorb." Then she was off and jogging to find the Doctor.

Gorb kept tottering to his destination, "You're welcomes Sarahlady."

* * *

Rose sat down in disbelief. This couldn't be happening. Could it? No, she was human. She _had_ seen things and _had_ become Bad Wolf but she was always _human_. Without being human...but if she was Gallifreyan then that meant the Doctor was no longer alone. But how? That's right, the high queen, she was human and became something...more. Rose stood and went to her door. The rush of silk against her skin reminding her again and again that she wasn't anywhere normal. That ever since she ran into that leather clad mad man in the department store nothing had ever been normal again.

* * *

The hidden passage stretched on and widened into a large candlelit chamber with an enormous pipe organ surrounded by red velvet where Erik would frequent to compose while visiting his eldest. The room was kept clear of smoke by...well...magic, duh.

Jareth sat on the bench brooding at his father's side. "Would you like me to play you something Jareth?"

He sighed heavily and patted his father on the shoulder. "No father, your idea of cheer-you-up music has always been a bit lachrymose for my taste."

Erik stood up from the organ and pulled out a battery powered boom box smuggled past his rather old fashioned wife. "How about now?"

Jareth perked up a bit, "Do you have William Shakespeare?"

Erik smiled broadly at his wonderfully different son. He was the only one of his children who took music so close to heart. It was probably why they were always as thick as thieves. "'Can't Stop Myself From Loving You' along with 'Sweet Talking Woman' and 'Mr. Blue Sky' by Electric Light Orchestra."

Jareth's smile looked as though it would break his face as his body nearly shook with delight. "He-Yeeeehehe!"


	4. Hi! Tea?

**A/N I own nothing from the source material, songs, or oc's from MyraValhallah's story**. **Just doing this for fun.**

Chapter 10

Christine sat calmly speaking with a woman in a copper colored silk dress. They sat sipping tea and awaiting the arrival of their third member. "Rin, dear. Do you recall when Sarah first came here?"

"Why yes, I do. She tried very hard to best me." Rin smiled over the rim of her tea cup. The garden buzzed about them. There were no bees, Rin was not very clear on the reason, but the little pixies and faeries did their best to pollinate each and every rose, daisy, and lavender that grew in the queen's corner. Like the chamber set aside for his father this corner patch of the garden was reserved as a place of rest for his mother when the trouble of visiting took too much of a toll. Jareth tried not to think too long why his parents needed places where they could get away from him and each other but, rather, chalked it up to the old parlor rooms and Gentleman's clubs of their era.

The tea was bitter and Christine made a little face when she came to the bottom of her cup. "Do you think she will be long?"

Rin tapped her fingers on the table in a little rhythm. Soon the sound of swishing skirts and thudding shoes could be heard coming up the stone paved path. Rose Tyler stood and assessed the high tea going on. "I thought you were French!" She looked at the posh ladies and she couldn't wrap her head around this. "And isn't your husband French? Why are you having high tea? Why does your son have a British accent? Why do I have two hearts?" She crumpled into the chair closest to her and was promptly given a cup of tea and offered the plate of macaroons. She picked up the pink one and then thought better on it. "This won't make me stay in this fairy realm forever will it?"

Rin giggled and Christine added a pinch of sugar to her tea. "You ask a lot of questions my dear. Yes I am French. The French began the whole tea thing twenty-two years before the British. We just do not brag about. As for Jareth I think he picked it up thinking it would make him sound sophisticated. I don't know how you have two hearts but I do know why. I suspect deep down inside you do as well. Lastly, no," She took a sip of her tea and let her eyes dance at the young woman, "the macaroon won't do that."

"Good...I think." Rose took a bite of the macaroon and a sip of her tea.

Rin smiled at Christine and winked at her, "The tea however..."

Christine winked back, "Oh well of course the tea, but, forever's not long at all."

The two women burst into fits of giggles when Rose spit her tea in a shower of liquid and crumbs.

* * *

Sarah ran into the room and stopped short. There was something almost frightening in the room. As though there was something not quite there but very much so. Something was different. The Doctor was different. "Doctor?"

He sat up in his chair. "Hmm? Oh yes, what is it Sarah?" He straightened a bit but his face still held that dog tired quality Sarah hadn't seen there before.

Sarah sat across from him. "You...you looked...never mind. There's a trick painting in a hall just down the way. It was staring at me."

The Doctor jumped out of his chair and straightened his coat. "Well then Sarah Williams. Let's see."

* * *

Sarah was walking around the gardens. She bent to test the scent of a particularly exotic blossom. They had made it to the painting and the Doctor had analyzed it with a swish and a scan of his sonic. He told her it might be safer for her to stay there. He then came running back out and told her to search the gardens for something called a narkel. She knew to listen to the Doctor. Anyone who traveled with him knew to listen when he told. But she had no idea what a narkel was and, honestly, felt a bit dim just walking around a garden when the Doctor might be having a wonderful adventure.

She walked into a small arched path paved with stone. Bunches of grass stuck up through the bits between. She didn't like being here again. In fact she hadn't liked being anywhere until three days ago. Now she was needed again. She hated to admit it, she really hated to, but when her stepmother had stopped calling her to watch Toby Sarah's heart had sunk six thousand leagues. She may have complained at times but that was just because she hadn't wanted them to know how little it cost her to be around them. If they thought she enjoyed it they might have taken her for granted. She tripped then not having seen the stone a bit upturned while she had been thinking.

"I didn't take you for a klutz, dear." A woman in a cobalt dress put out her hand and helped Sarah to her feet.

"I'm usually more aware of my surroundings." Sarah dusted off her pants and thanked the strange woman.

"Oh, it's no trouble, dear. Would you care to join me and my friends for tea?" the lady smiled kindly and Sarah couldn't help but smile back.


	5. A Bit of Male Bonding

**A/N I own nothing from the source material, songs, or oc's from MyraValhallah's story**. **Just doing this for fun.**

Chapter 11

 **A/N The link below is to the song. If you care. I hope you enjoy. Jareth will be taking center stage with Sarah soon.  
**

 **watch?v=x0JXjT9tsZw**

* * *

" _I tried to get you out of mind/ but it's just a waste of time/ can't leave the past behind/ I told myself be glad that we're through/ but I know I needed you/ I know that I do, I know that I do-oo/ I tell myself that I've been doing so well and over and over I've been fooling myself/..."_ Both the Doctor and Jareth pointed their candlestick 'microphones' toward Erik who took part in the chorus with expected fervor.

" _I can't stop myself from watching you/,_ " Jareth took over from his father in lead vocals, " _Can't stop myself from needing you/_ ," the Doctor, " _I tried so hard to get over you/,_ " and they all brought it home, " _I just can't stop myself from loving you!_ " The three men finished the song in this fashion and found nothing wrong with sharing a bit of emotional pain through 70's glam.

The Doctor had found the two kings singing Electric Light Orchestra and decided that it must have been one of them who had been peeking into the corridor for anyone who might have been a bit judgmental. After politely butting in and some light questioning he discovered this to be the case. He figured that with no danger in the passageway that he would leave for the gardens to retrieve Sarah. He was, however, stopped by a very pitiful Goblin King tapping him on the shoulder. _  
_

"You're not...interested in her...are you?" The question came out mumbled and struck the Doctor as a very human thing to ask.

He smiled brightly at Jareth. That boyish grin that on one level could drive the girls crazy but on a thoroughly different one he just liked the way _he_ felt when he used it. "Oh...no...She is great! But not for me. Brilliant young woman though." He placed his hands in his pant pockets and rocked slightly on his heels. "I've missed having a traveling companion." With another smile, this one tinged with a bit too much reality for a faerie realm, he started to depart once again.

Erik could see that this young man needed as much cheering up as his son had and placed the burned cd from above ground into the player. "Doctor." He called. The younger man turned. True they all appeared to be around the same age but there were definite discrepancies in chronology. "Would you care, Doctor, to share in a bit of a song? There is nothing in this kingdom that could do actual harm to Sarah." The Doctor looked at the both of them and agreed to just one song.

They sang through the full three twice over before they decided to call it quits. "Do you want to know one of my more recent favorites?" Asked the Doctor from his cross legged position on the floor.

"What?" The parent-child duo asked in perfect unison.

"Faithfully by Journey. It always hits me right...here," He pressed a fist to the left side of his chest, "and here too I suppose." He poked a thumb toward his second heart.

"We should listen to it!" Erik suggested enthusiastically and the Doctor thought that a marvelous idea but he knew he only had it on the main console. With a rush of fabrics (poofy shirt, trench coat, and cape) the men ran the distance to his waiting TARDIS.

One song later and all three men were thinking about the woman in each of their lives. Erik really had nothing to complain about as the only real amount of time his wife and he were apart was shorter than the average morning walk to get the paper. Barring time spent with children they were rarely found separately, but as the song had stated, every time they were separated he got the joy of rediscovering her. Jareth knew that he and Sarah were two strangers learning to fall in love again. While he was constantly standing on the edge of that precipice just waiting for the go ahead it seemed that Sarah would need a bit more time and information to bring herself to it. The Doctor, though brave and smiling on the outside, was very worried to discover what might have happened to Rose while he was off...protecting everyone. Through time and space...there was always another task to complete. Yet when everything slowed he would find himself feeling lost without her.

* * *

The Doctor's mind slipped back for a moment to another place and time with his TARDIS. To another song. He had left the Ood outside and started his next journey when it hit him. Everything he would be losing when he changed. His clothes, his company, even his favorite foods would change. Let alone his TARDIS. He didn't want to go. He turned and looked at no one and everything.

"I don't want to go." His voice was thick and his eyes misty.

"Well, usually I wait for I wish...but...I suppose I'll let that slide." An attractive woman in a copper gown leaned against the console. "Ooh, what a big shiny button." She leaned toward it and the Doctor lunged forward grabbing her hand.

"Don't touch that." He looked at this sudden visitor with shock and, honestly, a bit of worry. What sort of basket case goes around touching every big shiny button they see? "What have you done already?"

"I've stopped time, silly. More specifically I have stopped _you_." She pointed for dramatic effect. "And if you agree to this little deal I could stop it for a great long while."

The Doctor thought it over. He could come back to this moment in time when he was ready. That didn't seem so bad. "What effects would this have on the universe?"

The woman smiled, "None."

"What do I have to do in exchange?" He quirked an eyebrow to give the question extra weight.

"Everything."


	6. A Forgettable Conversation

****A/N I own nothing from the source material, songs, or oc's from MyraValhallah's story**. **Just doing this for fun.** the song from the last chapter they were all singing was "Can't Stop Myself From Loving You" by William Shakespeare. Don't be afraid faithful readers. Nothing can harm anyone in this story and the pairs will always be the pairs. The Doctor will be fine. Tara is the name I am giving to the TARDIS since the source material gave the Labyrinth the name Rin.  
**

Chapter 12

Sarah picked at her jeans uncomfortably as Rin and Tara discussed maze maintenance and Christine and Rose spoke about the shifts contemporary pop. Sarah was an observant child, which hadn't helped much with her parent's divorce, and right now she had an irksome feeling. The tea ended and Rose told the group she was on her way to find the Doctor. Sarah told Rose where she had left the Doctor at the painting and the three ladies wished her well. Then, in one fluid motion, they turned on her.

"Hello again, little girl." The woman in the copper gown named Rin smiled at her.

"Yes, it is time to help you now." Said the woman in the gown named Tara.

"Don't scare her dears." Christine smiled at Sarah.

Sarah looked down at her feet and back up at them. "Where is Ayesha?"

"She left with her mate just before tea. In fact once I find my husband I'm afraid Jareth will be on his own in his kingdom once more." Christine passed her hand over the table and the settings disappeared. "Though," she cast a probing gaze upon the young woman, "he doesn't have to be."

"I," Sarah stepped back a bit, "I don't need to be match made thank you. I just want to get back home actually."

Tara and Rin looked at each other nervously. Rin spoke up while Tara told Christine she could leave now. "Sarah. Sarah if you don't at least try to speak with him then a deal far beyond your comprehension will go south."

"What are you talking about?" Sarah looked between the two women and realized that getting answers would be as easy as pulling teeth.

The three women were alone in the garden as night began to fall. Rin watched absentmindedly as the labyrinth surrounding them shifted slightly. Tara pursed her lips trying to find what would be best to say. "It's about Gallifrey."

"That planet?" Sarah remembered the Doctor mentioning it off hand.

"It's going to need help. A lot of help. But you see, the Doctor you have met is not old enough yet but he was going to die."

"Die?!" Sarah thought he looked rather healthy.

"Yes, it is a whole process, he will get a new face but he needs to do something first. He needs to meet his future and his past but it hasn't happened yet."

"Then how do you know about it?"

Rin realized it was her turn to speak. "The Day of the Doctor approaches. He must keep his face and also lose it in order to save the planet that will save the universe. The power to do this will require three kings."

"You have three kings. I have met them. What do you need me, the Doctor or Rose for?"

"We must have a king from each. One who has run from the world, that would be Erik, one who has helped others run, Jareth, and one who runs to save it, your Doctor."

Sarah felt sick. "You're tricking three people aren't you?"

Tara did look as though she felt remorse for it. "Jareth will only agree to help if you are part of the deal. The Doctor will only stay if he thinks Rose needs him more than the universe will."

"And Erik?"

Tara looked at Rin. "Erik will do anything for his son."

"I will tell them that you are manipulating all of them."

"It is for the best of the universe." Tara stepped closer.

"I will still tell them all of it."

Rin stepped behind her. "No you won't." With a well placed hand upon Sarah's forehead Rin wiped her memory of the entire conversation.

Sarah fell to the paved path and the two women were gone.

 **A/N Ok in End of Time the Doctor already stated that he had married "good ol' Bess." Who is Elizabeth I thus making him technically a king (OK a Prince Consort), but, it is clear the marriage didn't work out in the Shakespeare Code. Besides he needs to be king of his own little pocket of the universe. Don't you think?**


	7. A Spot of

**A/N I own nothing from the source material, songs, or oc's from MyraValhallah's story**. **Just doing this for fun.**

 **Chapter 13**

Jareth sees her standing confused in the middle of the garden from his window. In an instant he has poofed down in a shower of glitter and a puff of smoke. She looks lost and terribly confused. Sarah keeps staring at her hands and surroundings as though she had no idea what they were. With confusion evident she looks at him with those large watery green eyes.

"I don't know where I am."

Jareth knew something was wrong when she didn't try to hit him or start yelling about how it was totally uncalled for; him kissing her...blah blah blah. Her being confused was not on his agenda.

"Who are you?"

Her not recognizing him. Now that spells trouble.

* * *

"With a capital T." Rose had just finished her tirade on the Doctor. How dare he spend his time singing away, no, _partying_ , when he didn't know what kind of danger could have been out there. Sarah was under his protection and while nothing happened something could have. But, no, he wouldn't have been there because he would have been too busy playing. It was just like that murderous space ship and the Madame de Pompadour. He was still so...he wasn't different. That was the problem with his human counterpart. She showed him what it was to be a man of peace once more but just after, the TARDIS coral had matured and he obviously hadn't, because he left her. The Doctor had said his Meta-crisis was just like him but that was a lie. The Doctor wouldn't have run off the first chance he got. Then again maybe he would. She had told him about all of that and then told him that he was in big...

* * *

"Doo-doo." The goblin was searching everywhere for the lost little bunny. Christine knelt and ran her hand along the cotton tail's back before lifting it up and handing it to the visibly relieved Scratge. Erik had stopped and put up his hand.

"What is it dear?" Christine stepped closer.

"Something is wrong...we have to go back to the castle. We will leave for home once I have figured out the source of the disturbance."

In a swirl of magic that still got her to catch her breath after nearly a century with him they were gone.

* * *

Sarah was lain on a small couch in the library when Erik and Christine arrived soon after the Doctor and Rose ran in on the heels of three goblins carrying various bowls of bones and rags and wilted greenery only to be told to go and fetch something else. The king was keeping them busy which meant that he needed to use his magic on something other than getting them out of his way.

"She can not remember anything about this place and she does not know me." Jareth runs his hand along the length of her body slowly about three inches above her. A soft glow starts and immediately diffuses.

The Doctor whips out his sonic and Rose rolls her eyes. What can't that thing analyze?

"Wood." Christine had spoken and when Rose looked over she just shook her head as if she didn't know where it came from either.

Something was off in the Labyrinth and none of them knew what it could be. Sarah hadn't had her mind tampered with by anything alien which meant it had to be magic based but neither the Goblin nor the Fae knew what it was. The magic was ancient. Far older than even Erik who predated everyone by about two millennia. Something horribly wrong was happening and they would have to wait till Sarah woke up to figure out what had happened in that garden.

* * *

 **A/N I won't be updating for at least one week after this because I have a family vacation and there is a strict no devices rule. It might extend beyond a week but I will be updating at least by the 16th my time.**


	8. Upended Serenity

**A/N I own nothing from the source material, songs, or oc's from MyraValhallah's story**. **Just doing this for fun.**

 **Chapter 14**

Sarah knew something was off. She picked up the little trinkets and set them back down one by one. Music box, check. Lancelot, check. Something was missing. Panda slippers, check. What was it? What was missing? What couldn't she find? She realized then how quiet it was. It was too quiet. Too serene. Her parents were not fighting? Could that be why? No. Her mother had left them; had left her. Then why did she expect noise?

She sat on the edge of her bed and thought very hard. When it came to her it was as though a light bulb turned on over her head. "Toby." She said it on a breath. How could she have forgotten about Toby? It felt oddly familiar. The situation. But, she couldn't remember where. _Where am I?_ She stood and walked toward the door. _Why am I here?_ She clasped the door knob and pulled it open. _Where am I?_ The world seemed as though it were falling down around her ears. Sarah was staring out into nothing. No hallway, no exit, no escape. Just...nothing. She could hear something behind her and she turned but the familiar room was gone. A man was yelling though. It was distinct. Familiar. Who was it?

Sarah began walking to the voice. She wasn't sure if she was making progress. She knew that something was wrong here but she couldn't place her finger on it. Another voice began. Both male and now shouting at each other. She couldn't walk any farther. She wasn't tired it was just that the endless abyss had abruptly...ended. She started blinking trying to clear her vision as the darkness swirled around her.

"You were the one who brought her back here!" Accused the first voice.

"You were one who plucked her out of the real world first! The TARDIS probably chose here because of you!" Defended the other.

Sarah moaned with a headache. Everywhere she went there was screaming. Maybe it was her? She shifted slightly where she lay.

"Would you two stop shouting! She's waking up." Rose leaned over the couch, moved the hair out of the young woman's eyes. "You okay?" She had a beautiful smile and Sarah shook her head 'yes'.

The shouting _had_ stopped. Now, though, it was whoops of excitement followed immediately by scolding hushes. The goblins ran back out of the door to tell a myriad of Labyrinth inhabitants that Sharalady was awake.

Jareth stood sullenly in the corner as the Doctor and Rose tended to Sarah. He had tried to talk to her but it was clear that was useless. She seemed afraid of him. _Fear me, check._ He tried to glower but his fear for her wouldn't let it stick. She was a guest of his Labyrinth. A guest he was particularly fond of and he couldn't even say that she would be safe here. Because every time he would step closer she would mewl and hug the Doctor. Jareth was beginning to wonder "companion" really did mean something else.


	9. A Moment

**A/N I own nothing from the source material, songs, or oc's from MyraValhallah's story**. **Just doing this for fun.**

 **Chapter 15**

Erik and Christine had been on their way to the Court when Sarah had been found ill. They couldn't stay long. This was important; they tried to explain that to their son. They didn't discount the danger that something ancient was pulling the strings here but they had a previous engagement. Jareth stood in the corner of the room listening to them make their excuses. It didn't matter. Because what they were really saying was that even the High King and Queen could do nothing to dispel whatever magic had been worked over his Sarah. As he watched the Doctor and Rose leave an unconscious Sarah he knew it was his own fault. She had said it herself. He had given her certain powers all of those years ago. Not magic. No she had woven her own form of magic. He had seen what her life had been like. He didn't _want_ her. Not in that way at least. Not then. He had to play the role she cast him in just as she played the roles of spoiled brat and angry step child. They were parts her stepmother had made her play and he knew that the little girl who had believed in fairy tales just needed to prove she was her own person. She wasn't her mother's cast off. She wasn't her father's burden. She was a girl that could be anything she wanted to be. Just as he was but a man who had been a boy.

He walked to stand beside her inert form and he knew it was up to him. She knew her family. She kept going on about Toby and having promised him she would be there for his birthday. The Doctor told him that there was nothing wrong with her. She just couldn't remember the Labyrinth, it's creatures, her adventures, and Jareth himself. Jareth sighed in defeat. She had been fifteen, _fifteen_ , anything he offered then would have been criminal. Every girl wants to be a princess at some point. He had just been giving her that. He had wanted to show her what she was capable of. Being a hero, a princess, a friend...a sister. Now with him gone from her mind he knew that the feeling of sympathy between them which had grown into love, on his side, over those six years had to be forgotten. She could go with the Doctor back to where she belonged. Jareth could spend forever trying to forget her. For now he would stay by her side. Just until she woke and his princess would leave.

* * *

"Why do you think she can't remember any of this?" Rose had her hand placed on the paneling of the wall. The Doctor puzzled and pondered but couldn't think of what it could be. Then again there was a more urgent matter that required a bit more attention. Rose had been passed out, then angry, and now she eerily reminded him of Donna during the Meta-crisis fiasco. Something was wrong. He stared at her for a while then in a moment of inspiration pressed both his hands on either side of her chest. She gasped and he knelt to the ground listening to one heart beat and then the next while his hands curled around her waist. She placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed slightly. He looked up with an expression of wonder and a bit of fear. It screamed 'how?'.

"The TARDIS." It was said simply and he stood staring into her eyes as though looking for a confirmation. "She made me a Time Lord."

"No," He shook his head and she snapped her eyes from her fidgeting fingers to his face, "She made you Gallifreyan."

"Isn't that the same thing?" She was looking at him with a mixture of confusion and irritation.

"No, it's not." He stepped away and pushed his hands into his coat pockets and found the pocket watch. "Time Lords and Ladies, they're trained. They go to an academy. They are taught how to control what they are. What happens to their minds after they've seen the Time Vortex in the Untempered Schism. You didn't go through any of this. You can't..." He passed his hand over his face.

"I'm not good enough!" The shout brought a sound from Sarah and a look of warning from Jareth. Rose lowered her voice back to a hushed whisper. "That's what it was back then too! I was good enough to babysit your and Donna's mistake but I wasn't good enough for you." She stepped away from their corner and was half way out the door when Sarah started to speak. It was her mouth but not her voice.

"You're right. You Rose Tyler are not the Girl Who Waited, you are not the Impossible Girl, you are not the Doctor's Wife. You are not the last companion. You were not the first. The Moment has already come for this Doctor but he will still choose selfishly for you. He will not return. He will live forever stuck here. Two times should not happen at once. Sentimental." She turned herself to face the Doctor. "Sentimental old fool. You can not have the best of both worlds. It is her or Gallifrey. What will you decide?" Sarah collapsed against a scared Jareth who stared at the Doctor with wide angry eyes.

"Nothing wrong with her? Seems like there was something you might have missed, Doctor."

* * *

 **A/: The names should be spelled properly now, sorry.**


	10. Until Proven

**A/N I own nothing from the source material, songs, or oc's from MyraValhallah's story**. **Just doing this for fun.**

 **This story is rated M from now on due to a situation in this and subsequent chapters.**

 **Nothing unduly naughty happens you lechers but I don't want anyone getting their knickers in a twist over language or 'hand holding' and getting this pulled from the site. I've heard it happen before.**

 **Chapter 16**

"She said you were selfish and something about a moment. What is she talking about?" Rose was now in the Doctor's room pacing outside of the open TARDIS door.

"I don't know." Came the clear but distant voice of the Timelord. There was a sound of Converse on grated metal and the Doctor's head poked around the frame. "And I really don't like not knowing."

Rose stared after him as he disappeared back into the TARDIS saying something about a book, a council, and magical whatnot. She really wasn't happy that their conversation was interrupted by more adventure. She did have to admit that she had missed all of the running and cleverness. He had said she wasn't trained but she hadn't been looking into anything that would cause her mind to snap, so, it couldn't be that bad.

* * *

Jareth was running a cool cloth along Sarah's heated brow when the tremors started. She was sweating profusely and he wondered whether it was better to leave her dressed or to remove the drenched blouse she was wearing. The gentleman and the man inside of him battled until he decided letting her develop chills had to be worse then dealing with her ire at him removing her shirt. He kept telling himself that he was innocent. He was innocent. He picked her up gently and cradled her with one arm. Innocent. His hand touched the hem of her damp top, fingers brushing lightly against the skin of her lower belly and she shifted in a way completely independent of her tremors. He was innocent! She moaned softly as he pulled it over her stomach and rucked it up with his hand at her back. Completely innocent. He was up to the under-wire of her bra when the door slammed open. He dropped her gently back to the divan as-is and stood trying to cover her with a wide stance his hands in the air at shoulder height. "I'm innocent!"

The way he shouted it made Rose wonder and she followed the Doctor around the King of Whence. She didn't like the way her Doctor was staring down at the young woman but realized exactly what had enamored him when she followed his gaze to the girl's left side. Written latterly along her ribcage was a tattoo of one phrase. Two words. Rose read it aloud.

"Bad Wolf."

Sarah sat up immediately and her eyes shot open. Jareth was noncommittal on his stance of her shirt returning to it's original non-rucked status and the Doctor stepped closer so as not to miss whatever Sarah might say. She didn't speak though. She just looked at the three relative strangers and smiled. The smile she gave to Jareth nearly melted him into a puddle of goo. "Why am I here again?"

Jareth started at the sound of her lucid voice and smiled at the content. "Again? Do you remember this place?"

"No," she saw that the statement brought a kind of despair to the King's face and she amended her words as not to hurt him, "I remember something like a dream. Did it really happen?"

Jareth's first reaction was to answer yes, that it did happen that her strength had caused him to love her and want to protect her and to pull his punches. That when she had whirled back into his life all he did was realize how much stronger she was being nearly completely cut away from the family she had fought so hard for. How much more in love with her he had grown when he thought he might lose her. Then he thought of what could happen if he told her she was still dreaming. That if he cast a charm to let her sleep and return to her world that it might be better for her. His deliberations were for not though when a cog seemed to turn in her head. A light bulb glow over her chestnut hair.

"Were you...were you undressing me?" Jareth's eyes went wide as saucers and he had to fight the urge to cower in front of the Timelord who was now glaring daggers and pointing an, until now, unnoticed plunger at him.

"I'm innocent!" He shouted but Rose didn't care. She and the Doctor had come to some terrible realizations without needing to confirm that Jareth was a bit of a pervert.

* * *

The plunger wasn't a plunger at all. It was part of a Dalek they had needed to defeat on the way here. Just one, there wasn't any evidence of others but they had run to Sarah nonetheless. Sarah sat next to Jareth rather comfortably for someone who had just accused him of indecency. Which he was not guilty of. Her knuckles grazed the back of his hand when Rose finished describing how the blast of the metal shell had scared three goblins and most likely caused an uncleanable mess in the hall. Jareth couldn't care less about the mess because the Daleks sounded like some terrible news especially after the Doctor admitted that they were the reason he was now a man without a planet. Jareth couldn't afford to let creatures like that enter Whence. It would be unsightly.

Sarah looked at the man who she had heard humming to her as she had faded in and out of sleep and wondered what kind of connection they shared. She distinctly recalled him telling her he loved her. He had called her his princess. She didn't feel enmity toward him but she knew that whatever their relationship, he carried the heavier torch.

"What does all of this mean?" Sarah asked breaking the small silence that had descended over the quartet.

"Well," Rose offered. "There is the fact that my species-changing benefactress has gone and disappeared after our little chat and so has the woman with her."

The Doctor looked at Rose wondering why she hadn't mentioned another women before. He voiced his concern. "Her name was Rin but she had this eerie quality about her just like Tara. It wasn't too difficult to figure out that Tara was the TARDIS when I heard her make a weird wheezing noise and excused herself passing it off as a cough. She muttered 'stupid old thief' under her breath. When you admitted to taking the boys out for a spin at just that time it clicked in my head. The TARDIS had used my face before but Tara gave off the same sense as her. The TARDIS that is. The woman with her was wearing a copper gown and was rubbing elbows with Christine all afternoon."

The Doctor threw up his hand, "What?"

Rose was confused at being interrupted, "What?"

"Describe the woman in the copper gown, please." She did and it matched perfectly with the description of the woman who had stopped his regeneration. He did not want to talk about this right now but decided that there really was no better time than the present. He explained that he had chosen one more adventure in his TARDIS, one more chase, before he changed his face and lost another part of himself. Rose stood up and slapped him one good. It was bad that he was starting to expect the abuse, wasn't it?

"How could you do that?" She yelled. "After telling me over and over again that you're the same person in there you go and make a deal to keep your face. You're still as vain as you were during the Meta-crisis debacle. No wonder Sarah's become all wonky in her head you mutton-headed dolt. I'm Gallifreyan and Sarah's missing a part of her mind," She ignored Sarah's indignant 'hey' for the moment, "because you didn't want to go?"

"Rose," The Doctor rubbed absentmindedly at his smarting cheek, "I'm sorry." He looked down at Sarah, a human in his charge, who had been hurt because she was just part of the deal. Her hand had found Jareth's when the Doctor had mentioned how the woman had made him promise to choose her as his companion. "I'm so sorry to all of you, because, I'm afraid that my selfishness has caused something dire to occur." He pulled the piece of paper from his trench coat and held it out to the three of them. "When you mentioned the moment I wanted to ignore the memory it stirred. I wanted to forget for just a little while longer." They looked at him each goading him to go on. "The Moment is a weapon not an actual moment in time. The Daleks fought me during the Time war and I made a choice. I was forced to change my face then to fulfill a prophecy but now I have refused to change my face and quite possibly have caused a rip in time and space that not even my travels could scab over."

Sarah looked at the paper and the diagram of the moment drawn on it. Then she noticed the paper it was drawn on. There was writing underneath it. "Where did you get this paper?"

"From an old book in the library in my TARDIS. It fell out when I was searching for a way to help you. Why?" He stood next to her and tried to read the words.

"It mentions a final battle and the closing up of a great evil and powers that be. It says that their must be a champion." Everything clicked for Sarah then. She remembered everything said in that garden before the women had taken her memories. Sarah looked at Jareth who had turned paler than a sheet. He loved her. It was clear in his fear for her. She felt for him but she didn't know how much. All she knew was that he was in her heart. "It was left in the TARDIS and in that book on purpose. I can feel it. Do you know what that means?"

Rose and the Doctor looked between the two who had been sitting on the divan. Sarah knelt beside Jareth as he dropped his head into his hands. She placed a caring hand on his knee and he looked into her eyes before making brief contact with the rooms other occupants. The answer only cemented his fears that he wouldn't be able to protect her. "You're the Champion of Whence, luv. I gave you certain powers."

* * *

 **A/N: This chapter is probably the longest I've ever written for a chapter fic. I hope you all enjoy. The story is coming to a head and let's all remember that Rose is very hurt from all of the secrets but that she still loves the Doctor terribly and he loves her. With nearly all the secrecy out of the way I'm sure they'll have smooth sailing.  
**


	11. Up In Flames

**A/N I own nothing from the source material, songs, or oc's from MyraValhallah's story**. **Just doing this for fun.**

 **Chapter 17**

"I think the first thing we should do is...research." Sarah ignored the groans of the goblins because they probably were illiterate anyway.

Jareth cast a withering stare over his people and placed a tentative hand on the back of Sarah's chair. "Sarah is right," He looked at the library in the TARDIS with admiration, "The two women, be they the Labyrinth and this...vessel...or simply using those rather unconventional forms to create a false sense of trust with us, were fairly vague in their information. I suggest we compartmentalize and get down to business."

* * *

Research is boring. Research is soooo boring. I really miss the running and the cleverness now. Rose felt as though she had been reading her book on Carrionites for forever. She put it down. "Something about the power of the right words and when to say them and where. What is a Hellmouth?"

"What?" Sarah reached out and took the book from in front of Rose. "Right words and a...Hellmouth?"

"The Hellmouth bit was in this book." Rose handed over a large leather bound book. "It says all matters of nasty things happen over them."

Jareth was half listening to the girls talk as he watched the Doctor flip through books, tossing them in haphazard heaps when he didn't like what he saw. Jareth saw him still when he held a battered blue journal in his hand. Three times the Doctor went to open it and three times he stopped.

"Jareth!" He snapped his attention back to the girls. Sarah had said his name so urgently he was surprised she wasn't bleeding when he came over.

"What do you need, pet?" He calmed when he saw her simply reading. She held in front of her the schematics to a building and a few diaries written in such tiny script he feared she would develop migraines.

"What shape is the Escher room?" She didn't look up from what she was studying she just asked with her nose in one of the larger books. He smiled down at her as the corner of his eye caught the Doctor contemplating the blue journal yet again.

"The Escher room's original shape was...a Tetradecagon I believe. Why?" Her eyes sparkled as she stood quickly nearly toppling the chair in her haste. Righting the chair with his enhanced reflexes Jareth followed the human over to the Doctor.

"Carrionites." The Doctor looked at her as though she were bonkers. She sighed. "What do you know of them?"

He looked back down at the journal which held everything he was going to do after this. He hadn't read anything but the fact it was full meant he did go back. He cast a guilty look over toward Rose then returned his attention to the brunette. "I have three stuck in a purple orb up in a trunk in the main console."

He said it so offhand she nearly didn't believe him. "You have space witches stuck in an orb stuck in your TARDIS and you didn't think that might have something to do with the magical whatnot you were so inappropriately excited about before?"

"I have a lot of things stuck in things stuck in my TARDIS. Should I have given you an inventory?" He smiled at her but she was having none of it.

"If any of them are as potentially dangerous as Carrionites, I really think you should have." She had that tilt to her hips that simultaneously frightened and amused Jareth. Rose spoke up then taking everyone's attention back to the research at hand.

"It says here that the Hellmouth under the Globe was almost closed in 1613 during a performance of Henry VIII but that it was not considered successfully closed until 1644 and shortly after the Globe was "demolished" and housing was built on top of it. The quote marks are actually in the text." She shrugged before continuing. "According to this diary," She gestured at one of them, "something called the council set up shop on top of it in an attempt to watch over it."

"From the various entries I read it sounds like that's all they did. Watch." Sarah actually seemed disappointed that this council didn't seem to have anything to do directly with their predicament. Jareth was taking this quite well he thought. Sarah had only returned to him because of some strange prophecy about Chosen One's and Champions and now she was giving it her all to get away from him. And save the universe. Can't forget the universe saving.

* * *

Rose was actually starting to love this. It was almost like she'd been eating those chips from that school with the evil teachers. How was it that her life included a school with legitimately evil teachers? Oh, that was how. She smiled over where the Doctor, no, _her_ Doctor was finding the last bit of the ritual that had to be done. It had been a banner day for discoveries.

* * *

 **Earlier that afternoon...**

"There is a second one of you? Floating around in a replicate TARDIS? And you didn't think to tell us that?" Sarah had been fuming. Jareth couldn't blame her. "When were you going to tell us?"

The Doctor removed his glasses and stared at them before whipping them back onto the bridge of his nose. "I didn't believe it to be pertinent information at the time."

"You mean," Jareth spoke from his place on the now far too glittery arm chair, "the same time when it became clear that you needed to go through a regeneration in order to stop the dimensions from splitting open at the seams? Wasn't pertinent then?"

The retort died on the Timelord's lips when he realized what the overgrown goblin had said. He ran off and Jareth was nonplussed. "Did he just run away from me?"

Sarah shrugged and walked over to where Jareth sat, silently telling him to scooch so she could join him in reading the ungainly tome perched on his knee. The way he swung his leg off the arm and sat a bit too prim and proper while Sarah slipped in beside him made Rose nearly choke on laughter. It was adorable really. How the two of them were so well matched and yet they were so awkward around each other.

"No he did not!" The Doctor's shout from the mezzanine made the couple in the chair jump. "He did not run away from you, well _I_ didn't, I mean. Usually I don't stand behind the magical broohaha but I figure, when in Rome," He stopped and looked at Rose. "After this we should go to Rome. Anyway I ran to find this." He dropped the largest book they had seen yet down with a thud to the ground floor and a cloud of dust billowed from it.

"What is that?" Rose stared at it and she immediately knew that this behemoth was going to hold all the secrets they needed.

"The Necronomicon!" The gleam in his eye was unmistakeable as much as the very audible gasp from Jareth.

* * *

 **Now...**

"Are we sure the whole 'we three kings' was just a diversion?" Sarah looked at the three non humans seated around her in a triangle while she held the supposedly fictional book in her hands. "I mean if we try getting around that by doing this..." She made a sweeping gesture at their surrounding ritual preparations. "What if we end up just destroying the universe?"

Rose squeezed the younger girls knee in reassurance. "I'm already in a dimension I'm not meant to be in and so are you. The universe is already tearing apart."

The chant rose up after the fire was started and they put all of their thoughts into bringing the Meta-crisis to Whence. But it would seem someone got distracted.

Standing in the center, where Sarah had vacated after the big pillar of fire appeared, was a very angry looking blonde man.

"-alls. Bugger, I'm not even anywhere near that bleeding amulet anymore." The peroxide punk looked down his nose and contorted his mouth into something of a snarling smirk. "I'm part of another soddin' ritual/prophecy aren't I?"

"Oi! Language in my TARDIS!" The Doctor stood and stared at the man which seemed to be getting under the new arrival's skin. "Or is it _our_ TARDIS?" He reached out a hand to touch the bleached hair. "Were you at least a ginger _before_?"

Rose hopped up and fingered the leather duster. "Doctor, you've gone back to wearing leather."

The fifth wheel jerked away from the Gallifreyans. "Hey, William the Bloody's no ginger, don't be touchin' the coat you'll bruise the leather, and did you call me the Doctor. I thought I told Captain Cardboard I was holdin' those eggs for a friend. I ain't no smuggler." He pulled a fag and his zippo from an inner pocket. As he was about to light it, though, he was rudely interrupted by a ponce in tights.

The lighter and cigarette now in the palm of Jareth's left hand the King stared at the summoned thing. "You're not the Doctor and you're certainly no Great Old One. What are you?"

The supposed Mr. Bloody sucked his teeth before starting in. "I'm the Big Bad. Name's William the Bloody, Spike for short, One fourth of the Scourge of Europe. A Master Vampire of the Aurelius line. Sired of Drusilla who was Sired of Angelus who was Sired of Darla who was sired of the Master...Wait, did you say Great Old One?" He looked at the four little magic users and wasn't really surprised. Red looked as harmless as the two girls, so, it was possible. "Keerist, You're an Aurelian cult. I thought I killed all of you. Well, no time like the present." His brow grew ridged and his mouth filled with the unseemly fangs. He lunged for Sarah first and fell to the ground in a spasm of pain, clutching at his head.

Jareth stood and approached the fetal-ed vampire. Waggling a finger in Spike's direction and clucking his tongue, Jareth squatted to be at near eye level. "Naughty, naughty vampire. There will be no chomping on juicy little Champions."

"Champion?" The question was bit off through gritted teeth. "Bloody hell, you're not with Angel are you?"

Jareth ignored the Doctor's repeated exclamation of 'language' and went back to assessing Spike's dreams. The king smiled as he produced a buoyant crystal and began playing a little with it. The smile wasn't sinister. It was light and held just a hint of pain. "You want your Slayer."

"You leave her outta this!" His voice was labored under the pain and Jareth immediately snapped his fingers lifting the charm and stepping away as the vampire still lightly clutching his aching head came to a standing position. "Well, that made me bloody nostalgic." At that the Doctor just threw up his hands and stalked over to a bookshelf to sulk over the R-rated turn his life seemed to be taking. Leave it to the universe to throw another vampire war into his life.


	12. Where There's a Wells

**A/N I own nothing from the source material, songs, or oc's from MyraValhallah's story**. **Just doing this for fun.**

 **P.S. Starlight by Muse might be a good idea to check up on. Just saying. For further enjoyment of this fic and all that.**

 **Chapter 18**

"It sounds like you got yourself a problem with the First." Spike sat in the Goblin King's throne room. Correction in the Goblin King's throne. A cigarette dangling from his mouth as he went to light it. "Buffy and her Scooby white hats had gone and offed it and I got left in a pile of dust. Toasted and ghosted. Like I told the Great Ponce, not bloody fair, is it?" Sarah looked at Jareth but the King knew this ensouled vamp had quite the basis of comparison.

"You seem pretty corporeal to me." Sarah put out a tentative finger to poke him, just to make sure, but was caught at the wrist by a fairly miffed Jareth the Goblin King.

"It's proof enough that he's not the First seeing as he was poked and prodded by our Gallifreyans here. Don't you think, pet?" He glowered at the vampire in a way he hoped conveyed an indefatigable sense of 'mine'. The king may know of the torch bearing for a certain Slayer but the images of a bubblegum vamp named Harmony that had happened since said torch was lit justified Jareth's actions in his own mind.

"Problem is _pet,_ with your little friend H.G. over there how can you be certain the First won't be takin' the opportunity of your voodoo to hop in as his dopple?" Spike stomped the unlit cigarette out on the stone floor. Much to the chagrin of said floor's owner. The vampire stomped two more without even lighting them. "Really should stop the nasty habit, shouldn't I?" He leered at the women. "Did try when I was around Peaches. Thought I could get a fix outta annoyin' 'im." He got quiet then and Jareth knew why. The Slayer didn't appreciate his 'nasty habit' but being here meant he would probably save the universe from evil again and he'd never see the woman who made him want to change. Well, Jareth may not appreciate the vampire's sense of humor but he was not going to let a single person suffer in this apocalypse. No way. No how.

* * *

They all sat in the library while Spike groaned that they were worse than Rupes. Whoever that was. Sarah had grown used to the references to the punk's unlife no matter how weird that seemed. They knew what had brought him here. Jareth had admitted to having thought about Sarah as a champion and Rose had shamefacedly come clean about thinking of the Doctor in leather during the ritual to call forth the Human Doctor. Spike had muttered about 'the Bleeding Powers That Be' and them finding every 'buggering' loophole they could to put him 'through an unliving hell'. At this umpteenth use of foul language the Doctor had shrunk into his research on closing dimensional rifts.

"You try stopping the blood?" Spike yelled from the oddly glittery arm chair while examining his black fingernails. He had meant it as a snide inside joke but it caught their attention. What if by calling in a human Doctor they just killed him? A pillar of fire hadn't harmed Spike much but he was already dead. What if pulling the Meta-crisis through, harmed the human form and just left them with the corpse of a person that could have helped? What if he didn't _want_ to help? He had been pretty quick to leave Rose. They couldn't think of that though. They had to try.

* * *

They went into the Escher room and did it all again now with an audience that continued sing-songing 'you put your left 'and in, you put your left 'and out'. It wasn't annoying. No, of course not. Spike wasn't the only one with a look of surprise when the Doctor was both standing and sittin'. He was, however, the only one to walk up, quirk a scarred eyebrow, and punch the newest guest square in the jaw. "He isn't the First just so you know." He shook out his hand and sauntered back to his bedazzled seat.

Jareth and the Doctor picked up the konked out double and dragged him to a seated position against a wall. Now, they waited.

* * *

The Meta-crisis awoke just shy of an hour later and pulled away from the slightly putrid stench of a goblin perched on his chest. The goblin, Pritch, hopped off the prishner to tell the Shampooing that he was awake.

The quintet appeared and stared down at their new house guest. He stared right back up at them. "Where am I?"

"Whence." Sarah looked down her nose at the sleeze. She looked _very_ royal in that moment if Jareth were allowed to say so himself. "And you're going to help us save the universe."

They expected a fight. An argument. They did not expect the reaction they received. The Meta-crisis broke out in a relieved smile. "Finally."


	13. Of Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax

**A/N I own nothing from the source material, songs, or oc's from MyraValhallah's story**. **Just doing this for fun.**

 **Chapter 19**

"They didn't need me." The Meta-crisis stared into his mug of what he hoped was tea and sighed. "That dimension I found myself in...it had people called potentials taking care of everything." Spike perked up at that. Until that mo' he'd been comparing the Doctor to Angel in his head. Stupid styled brown hair? Check. Broody? Check. Spending exorbitant amounts of time feeling guilty for the deaths you were responsible for then doing everything you could to make it right? Check. Well all right, he had done his own fair share of that on the Hellmouth, but still.

"Potential Slayers?" Spike's smile made it clear that his current bad guy persona was just that, a persona. Or at least that was a heck of a lot of human in him.

"Yeah they had this girl, strongest human in spirit than I've met since Rose and certainly in brawn than any other out there, called the Chosen One. Only person I know to die more than once to save the world, ourselves excluded." He nodded at the Doctor when he said this. "If you need me then I'm all in. Allons-y." He smiled shyly and took a sip of his 'tea'.

Spike was still on cloud nine knowing that Buffy was still fighting the good fight and that as long as this rag tag team was on the case his dimension would be safe as houses. _Buffy_ was safe as as houses as long as the six of them were working on something. Maybe when he got home Angel's cookies would be done and good old White Hat Will could beat his grandsire and the blasted Immortal to the plate.

* * *

Sarah looked at the book one last time before they started. Rose and her Doctor were standing in a cordoned off circle of herbs and oils. The Meta-crisis was lying on the divan Spike had moved into the Escher room for them. It was true, she thought, as she looked at the vampire taking his spot as the third corner of their triangle. He was good and something told her soul or no soul that this man had always been a good man. Just as much as Jareth was just a good man who had played the role of villain for her. The more time went on the more she had to tamp down the urge to kiss the bird-brained monarch.

The memory of their kiss from what felt like so long ago seared Jareth to the bone. She had pulled away from him then but that had been his fault. He had pushed too far, too fast. He was willing to go slow if it meant she would sit near him, speak with him. Just her presence at his side now made him feel safe. As though everything would be right as rain.

Rose held the Doctor's hand for dear life. This was what would save the universe, but, she couldn't imagine it was what he wanted. He was such a good man. Now, if the transfer went well, that would be all he was. Not a Timelord, not the Bringer of Darkness, the Oncoming Storm, the Evergreen Man, President of the High Council of Timelords Keeper of the legacy of Rassilon, Defender of the Laws of Time and Protector of Gallifrey. Protector of Gallifrey. He would still be a good man.

The pain was excruciating as though their hearts had started on fire and they held onto each other for dear life. Rose and the Doctor collapsed to their knees as their genetic codes were rewritten and the power they possessed transferred to the Meta-crisis. Sarah kept chanting her right words until the light had stopped flowing from the two on the floor into the vessel on the divan. The man who from henceforth would be known as the Doctor sat up with a jolt and clutched at his, now, both beating hearts. The Escher room began falling apart and Sarah as well as the other two humans fell away to safety with it. The three men stood together as the rift opened and the First arrived. It was just an incorporeal demon each told himself. And what did Demons do when Good Men went to war?

* * *

"Run." Spike stared the creature down. Of course it would take that form. _Her_ form. "If you know what's good for you, you'll run back with your tail between your insubstantial legs to whatever hell dimension Buffy banished you to in the first place."

"Oh," the First tilted it's borrowed blonde head, "I think lil' Spikey forgot that it takes three kings to banish me back when it comes to this prophecy. And I only see one." The borrowed mouth smiled smugly and with that something snapped inside of him. He wasn't playing by the rules. He never liked them any way.

"What did Peaches say Soldier Boy dubbed him once? Oh yeah, Buffy told him about that tiff, he was crowned King of Pain. Well with Grandad being sent to hell by the Slayer, wouldn't that title now apply to me?" His grin was malevolent, "Seein' as 'ow I'm his bonny heir and he always affectionately called me 'boyo', he'd want me to have the crown." Even now his sarcasm and snark was ever present.

The glow that had been encompassing Jareth spread to Spike when he clasped hands with the Goblin King. The First turned to look at the Doctor and it shifted now looking like an old reminder of a pain he had been trying for years to put away. "What did the vampire say about a grandfather?"

"Susan." He stepped forward only a bit but it was enough to have the two blondes shout at him that it wasn't his granddaughter. "I know that. Susan was happy the last time I saw her and the knowledge that I was saving the universe for people like her was what kept me charging after the Meanwhiles and Neverwheres until I faced down, decapitated, and took the crown of the Could've Been King in the Time War." He held out both his hands and joined the other kings. The First howled and hissed then was sucked into the ether and the dimensions began closing.

* * *

The Escher room returned the three kings to the humans waiting for them and Sarah ran to Jareth the moment she saw them.

"You made it. You saved us." She peppered his face with kisses and the Doctor and Spike walked away before the embrace became too much PDA for even Dr. McKissyface and the Big Bad himself. The sight they were greeted with wasn't really that much better. A tangled mess of hands and fingers and mouths that resembled more the suckers on the bottom side of an octopus' tentacles then actual gobs. All it did was help to remind the two loners that that was what they were. Loners. The King!Doctor went to clear his throat but was too late.

"Would you two stop slapping tongues long enough for us to celebrate savin' the fabric of time and space. As former Gallifreyans I figured you'd care something for that." Spike huffed and stomped over to a step, sitting sulkily. He wasn't brooding, that was too much his Grandsire, no, Spike was menacing the step. He thought he would be home now, ready to prove himself, he'd moved on. He had. Maybe the Slayer of Slayers had finally made the circuit enough times that he was genuinely a prat of a good guy now. It wasn't so long ago that he and Angel had seen her in Italy though. Maybe she was still with the stupid Immortal. His _Benevolence._ Spike began menacing the step with fervor.

The King!Doctor said that he would be leaving then. All he had to do was fly to the coordinates the Human!Doctor had given him and the time lock on his regeneration would break. They had all followed him to the TARDIS. He had lost his when he had been sucked out of Buffy's dimension, anyway. Sara stepped out of the circle of Jareth's arms and, with his fingers still locked with hers, walked over to the Doctor. "Guess you're on your way to some whirlwind adventure."

He ducked his head and walked in through the familiar doors. There was the sound of a type 40 time travel capsule being prepped for take off. A moment later he popped his head back out. "I have the feeling we are all dropping into lives we might not feel ready for. I just thought I'd share this bit of philosophy before I leave. When the fall seems to overwhelm you, just take a deep breath and shout-" He was cut off as the TARDIS fazed out with it's familiar whoosh.

Rose looked at the Doctor, no, he had told her to call him John. She looked at John gauging his reaction to the last opportunity of being who he had been for centuries disappearing. Would he be happy with her in Pete's World? She was so scared he would be taken over by wanderlust just as his clone had.

John looked down at the young woman in his arms. Jareth was going to magic them back to her Doctor free dimension any moment now and he felt the swirl of power hit him as he stared into her eyes. He could tell she didn't quite trust what might happen after they fell. He could feel the sand of Bad Wolf Bay under his feet and smell the water. He leaned down until his lips were just a breath from hers. Almost kissing but not quite. He smiled. "So, Rose Tyler, Rome?" He leaned forward before she could respond and he thought very loudly... _Geronimo._

* * *

 **A/N: That'll be bye-bye to the Doctor, sorry, John and Rose. But wait, they only have two hearts between the two of them. That leaves us with four left unfinished in their mending.  
**


	14. Of Champions and Kings

**A/N I own nothing from the source material, songs, or oc's from MyraValhallah's story**. **Just doing this for fun.**

 **Chapter 20**

Jareth couldn't help but be mesmerized by how his life had changed so much in the time since the First had been defeated. He stared over at the sleeping form of his Champion. _My wife._ He thought with a wolfish grin. The wedding had been yesterday morning and Toby had been utterly adorable in his ring bearer outfit. Sarah had convinced her fiance not to make him look like a bear but, he was still adorable. The goblins had all been appropriately emotional and the fear of a rebellion from the chickens had all but been squashed. Sarah had not listened to the Slayer and he was slightly disappointed that their first dance had _not_ been "Wind Beneath My Wings." He'd never admit that to any of the other three though. His index finger played with the tendril of chocolate silk that had been obscuring his view of Sarah's pretty mouth. It had not been easy when Spike went around telling every inhabitant of Whence he could find that William the Bloody was a king just because he said he was. Jareth had been forced to 'dethrone' at least three goblins a day. Shows him for doing the vampire a favor. Speaking of which, wasn't he just so proud of himself having that little idea.

* * *

 **Two weeks ago...  
**

Jareth had given Spike a crystal that could let him have anything he wanted. The former poet hadn't asked for Buffy or wealth or fame. No, he was smart enough to understand that it was all going to be intangible. Little more than an illusion. That's what Sarah had described of her little crystal dream. He had closed his eyes and wished to know what had to happen for Mum, Glinda, and Demon Gal and all the White Hats to still be alive and that Buffy could have been truly happy. Turned out that it was a pretty penny on his part for that kind of good fortune. In that reality Spike had been staked in Prague along with Drusilla. He didn't care though. He just wanted to see what would have been needed to make their lives better.

"Never meeting me apparently." His voice was thick with emotion. "Shoulda known the Slayer was better off without my sorry arse."

"That's stupid, and so's your hair."

He turned at the sound of her voice and the illusions fell away from the Escher room. But Buffy was still there. "What are you doing here?" He almost hated how his voice sounded so hopeful and pained.

Buffy raised her hand and counted off on her fingers. With each word she stepped toward him. "Out. For. A. Walk." She stopped one step short and smiled at the man she thought had died in the Sunnydale Hellmouth and then in the Fall of L.A.

He closed the distance and couldn't bring himself to finish her little quote. Instead he hoped he could convey everything he wanted to say as he held her tight in his arms. But leaving words unspoken wasn't enough. "Buffy," He moved his face to rest his cheek on the top of her head, "I love you." He smiled. He didn't think he'd get to say it to her face again.

"No you don't, but thanks for saying it." He could hear the smile in her voice and he groaned into the crook of her neck before placing his hands on her shoulders and looking her in the eye.

"Would you please stop repeating back to me things I've said."

"So if I were to say something you said to me a lot, even when it was wig-worthy for me, you wouldn't want me to say that either?" Her grin was infectious and it sparked a smirk that he couldn't help but let split across his face.

"Depends on what you say, Slayer. That and whether or not you're cookies."

"Oh," She passed her fingertips along his cheek and smiled a little more when he leaned into the caress. "I'm cookies." She bobbed her head to coax him into the realization and grimaced when he took a big sniff from the air.

"Smells like my favorite flavor." He leaned close to her so that his next words nearly pressed his lips against hers. "But maybe I should have a taste?"

* * *

Jareth and Sarah were sitting in the garden at their little table secluded from the pressures of royalty while still in earshot of Didymus and Ludo the resident Toby sitters. Then the ruckus had started. Sarah jumped at the noise but Jareth just smiled into his coffee.

"Come on boy, let's play." Shouted Buffy after her Sunlight-impervious-as-long-as-they-were-in-the-Underground-where-time-doesn't-matter-and-they-can-get-away-from-saving-the-world-without-feeling-guilty Undead boyfriend in a poorly executed Fire Gang impersonation.

"Stop it!" Came Spike's bellow as he stomped through the garden gates.

"You got to use your own head!" She shot back in the same terrible attempt.

"I said stop it!" Just then the King of Pain rounded on the Goblin monarchs. He breathed a few unnecessary times until he could trust himself to speak. "Jareth."

Jareth smiled into his caffeinated beverage and hummed to show he had heard the vampire. Sarah's head swiveled between the two men.

"They could have killed me. I would have been a dead man!" Spike turned on his girl with barely controlled frustration when he heard her giggle.

"I thought you were always so happy to bring that point around. You know, that you'realreadydead." She added the last part in a whispered hush as he got very close.

"What were you doing in the Fire Gang's territory anyway, Spike? Spreading the tale of your wondrous victory I assume. How hard it all was all on your own. Without any help. When you discovered that you could be a king just by saying you were one. How you prevailed?" The whole time his eyes had not lifted from the petitions he was reading from the guards but his voice dripped with good natured venom.

"Prevailed?" Spike let loose a snort of derision. "It was a piece of cake."

Sarah's head fell against her hand, cheek to palm, as she and Buffy watched the punk and glam rockers go another round of posturing for what felt like the millionth time.

 **fin**

 **A/N: Did you guys like it? I wrote what I wanted out here in the world and I hope I'm not alone in having enjoyed it. Buffy the movie came out in '92 the year MyraValhallah listed as the start of the first half of this story. What with hell dimensions, magic, Champions and all of that (not to mention people trying to make Jareth a Vampire in their stories) well it seemed like it wouldn't be too big a leap to include the Whedonverse. Plus for all of you who were only interested in 10/Rose the story could have ended last chapter and you can't be angry about this one ;)**


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